Long Distance Riding

by John Stumpner

Bikers like to ride their motorcycles. While this is pretty obvious, motorcycles can be more than just a form of transportation. One way to put it is, a biker knows why a dog likes to stick his head out the car window. Many bikers will put thousands of miles on their bikes each year touring around the United States and even around the world.

Bikers share a sort of a bond. That is why bikers will often wave at other bikers, even if they don’t know the other person. At rest stops and gas stations, you may often see some bikers visiting with each other. Then one may leave in one direction and the other in a different direction. These bikers may not have met before that day but being on long road trips made them instant friends, even if only for a short time. On my trips around the Midwest, I have met and visited with bikers from all over the United States, Germany and Poland.

Long road trips can be challenging though. Because they are smaller, motorcycles have limited seating space. A car, truck or van obviously has a larger seat and more “leg room” than a motorcycle. So, it can be difficult spending hours in the same position on a long trip. The larger touring bikes, like the Harley Electra Glide and the Honda Goldwing have more comfortable seats and various foot pegs for the rider which makes the long trips a little more comfortable. The seating position on a sport touring motorcycle is designed to keep the rider comfortable for long periods of time.

Bikers and their passengers that travel long distances have to have the discipline and self-control not to be “fidgety” on those long trips. Some bikers with this discipline and self-control include bikers like the “Million Mile Harley Man,” Dave Zien, who put his miles on a Harley Softail, a cruiser type motorcycle more suited to shorter trips. A prominent ABATE of Wisconsin member got the nickname “Hardtail” by making a long trip on a hard tail chopper, a type of custom motorcycle with no rear suspension. In my travels, I met a biker making a trip from New York to South Dakota on a motorcycle with only a flat aluminum plate for a seat.

Bikers that make long trips sometimes like to show what they’ve done. Some bikers have a black and white patch showing the United States, on which they will color in the states they have ridden to. Groups like the Long-Distance Riders and the Iron Butt Association have various levels of certificates bikers can earn for making long rides.

Freedom of the road for bikers is necessary for those bikers that choose to make long trips on their bikes. That is why ABATE of Wisconsin and other motorcycle rights organizations work to make sure that bikers and their motorcycles will always be allowed to use our nation’s roadways as they do now. And as ABATE of Wisconsin Junior Patriots, you too are part of that work.

John